by Aditya Gangadharan

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The sambar represents one of the most complex divides between north and south India. In the southern states, sambar (pronounced saam-baar) is a liquidy lentils-based thing that you can mix with rice, idli or dosa. In fact, we southern conservation biologists are so passionate about sambar (actually, so poorly funded) that we eat sambar rice three times…

I was driving up to my field station (trying to keep a low profile to avoid the poochandi who haunted the hairpin bends). As I turned on one of the hairpin bends and started accelerating, I saw some kind of a gigantic black thing on the road ahead of me. I slammed on the brakes, and in the headlights through the mist I saw a huge king cobra – eating a monitor lizard.

So we are now getting into the dry, hot summer in the southern Western Ghats (which seems weird because it is currently -20ºC in Edmonton). Summer is a challenging time for both animals and unfortunate conservation biologists. Sure, it’s the peak tick season, with lots of tick nests around, but that’s ok. You just scratch…

The first time I saw a wild elephant herd (I was maybe 10 years old), I tried feeding them a branch of juicy leaves. Luckily I was on the right side of a well-constructed elephant trench and my grandmother was around to drag me away. More importantly, the elephants were in a good mood –…

… a greenhorn ecologist in India would be more likely dropped off at dawn among a herd of elephants, with a vague instruction: “When [not ‘IF’] you get charged, don’t run in a straight line, try to duck behind a tree”. Trial by fire, and if you get through that you are set for life. But a lot of people burn unnecessarily.

What would you do if you felt a heavy weight and sharp claws digging into your chest in the middle of the night, opened your eyes and saw a leopard’s face a couple of inches away from yours? You would probably scream very loudly. And thats exactly what a colleague did many years ago.

I swear they are all related. The first masala dosa I ever ate at a commercial establishment in Edmonton looked like it had been trampled by an elephant, smelt like tandoori chicken and had an astonishing resemblance to the taste of the cardboard boxes that camera traps come in. It left me so traumatized that…

Crap has a profound influence on the lives of us conservation biologists, and thats a true fact. My papers are based on scats. People I know are reminded of me when they see someone in a movie examining elephant dung in the field. Whereas in reality, I get more excited when I see a fresh…

Patiently waiting for her cub… ..who later zooms into view. We got this photo only because an elephant came in between and smashed the camera, which is why it is pointing down at cub height. As black as night ‘I know you’re up there….’ Stalking in the middle of the day, a perfect formula for…

When I tell people about the tiger that casually walked past our camp in the middle of the night once, while we were all snoring, and finding its pug marks close to where we slept the next morning, I tend to get two types of reactions. ‘Thats so cool, I wish I was there!’, or…

My field assistants have an interesting belief. They say that tigers are very fond of elephant milk, because it is nutritious. So when there is a young calf in an elephant herd, tigers follow that herd, in the hope of getting some milk from the lactating cow elephant. Though I think that if a tiger…

Back in the day when I was young and innocent and still had my hair (here), I used to think that life as a conservation biologist was the way its often portrayed on TV. You know, you’re in the great outdoors, wearing khakhi shorts and hat, in that big cool-looking 4 wheel drive vehicle, watching…

One of the questionable perks of fieldwork in the Western Ghats is having giant tarantulas drop down on you from the trees above. Now those who know me will tell you that I am not a fan of big spiders, especially not when they are bigger than my outstretched palm. But I do have a…

Tigers, bears, mongooses, bonnet macaques…. some curious, some hungry, some shocked…. These are from camera traps set up in various forests of south India. Eye of the tiger! See here for a comic similar to this. The large and entertaining stripe necked mongoose. Three porcupines having a consultation on how to deal with this monstrosity…

“How does your research help baby elephants?” I thought it was a slightly strange and somewhat misplaced question to ask me. As conservation biologists, we focus on saving populations of animals and groups of species, rather than individual baby animals (though I would consider an exception for elephants – see the photos below and you’ll…

OK fine, I dont know if he is really headless or not. In fact chances are he does have his head, because he was staring at me. But it seemed like a good title… Ghostly visits are often a part of field experiences, especially when your study site consists of lonely surroundings, few artificial lights…

The Sri Lanka Frogmouth is definitely the funniest bird that I have come across (I cant quite decide whether it is also the ugliest). It is a nocturnal bird, found only in the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka. It’s pretty difficult to spot, so I got very excited the first time I…

Umayar is a beautiful location at the eastern corner of the Thenmala reservoir, within Shendurney wildlife sanctuary (beautiful photos here). Like other reservoirs it is a great place to sit and watch elephants, as they come down to drink from the almost impenetrable reed (Ochlandra Sp.) filled semi-evergreen forests around. I visited Umayar a few…